We Will Accept Census Results Because We Don’t Want More Time For APC – Kamarainba

As the Alliance Democratic Party (ADP) accepts the 2015 Population and Housing Census result launched by President Koroma last week, the Chairman and Leader of the party, Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray has declared that the party will create no room for more time for the ruling party.

He made this declaration on Monday 4th April at the party’s office in Freetown.

While he was reacting to the said result, Kamarainba said they as a party accepts the result of the census though there were some hiccups during the course of the census. He stated that they do not want anything that will derail the coming election in February 2018.

He said what he was working on at the moment was a reply to a letter from the National Electoral Commission (NEC) through the Political Party Registration Commission (PPRC) for the setting up of the boundary delimitation committee. “We are looking forward to a fair and credible election,” he maintained.

“We do not want anything that will give more time to the All Peoples Congress (APC)”, he went on, adding that “they will be happy to say the people are not serous so let us go for more time”. He emphasised that as a party, they do not need more time and are looking forward to the coming elections in 2018.

He added that even if the result has been manipulated, their role is to go to the people and educate them about the suffering the country is going through.

Another issue which he reacted to was the press release put out by the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) last Saturday. According to the release, the said party rejected the result of the census.

In his reaction, Kamarainba said he respects their position but disagreed with it. He said looking at the result, the North has the highest population, noting that, like the 2004 election which was conducted by the SLPP, the Northern Province has maintained the same 35% which it had then.

“SLPP is challenging the result because the North is the strong hold of the APC. SLPP should not have complained if the result was inflated in the South-East. To me, this is about regionalism and tribalism. This politics should stop”, he stressed. He added that, that is not his principle and ideology.

He pointed out that their stronghold is not a section of the country but the whole country. “We have strong holds all over the country. We want to stop this tribalism, sectionalism and regionalism,” he urged.

In addition to the issues which he addressed, ADP chair said the amount of money spent to conduct the census was excessive. He stated that about eighty billion Leones was used and 70% of the said money comes from the public’s fund thus “to say let us scrap the result and use that of 2004 does not make sense”. He said NEC should go ahead with the result as they will accept it and move on to educate the people.